Asakusa Revisited!

Photo using Lightroom 4 "Kamen" (Mask)

    Today I visited my grandfather, and I also revisited Asakusa, in Taito Ku (District) in Tokyo a really well known sightseeing location for both the locals and tourists. In the early 20th century Asakusa was known for entertainments, along with the most famous buddhist temple Sensouji. 

   It was a nice day-weekday, I took some nice photo's of the alley and shops nearby but was shocked with soo many people walking around.

Soo many people >.<

   I also forgot I am starting to get used to Lightroom 4 by Adobe when editing photos. Its becoming a nice program, adding finishing touches + "watermarks" effect/method of adding a copyright to your photographs A MUST for aspiring photographers. 

Lots of cute gifts  

New Camera Strap

Walked around Asakusa for the entire day, using the Nikon Camera strap on my D5100,(came with kit lens) I felt really disappointed in the quality of the strap. By looks its a 10/10 but in terms of functionality, it did not exceed my expectation. 
When using the kit lens-18-55mm which becomes about total  800g  the 3cm wide strap gives pain in neck after wearing it for a long time. I actually wondered what would happen if I used a telephoto lens...not to mention Japanese people look at you when you take photos-they get lured to the yellow NIKON letters. woot fancy photographer....
  
So..I went to a local camera shop called Yodobashi Camera (Japanese version of Best Buy/ Canada Futureshop) and bought a new camera strap by Swimmingfly & Gevaert not sure if they sell these in the US but it caught my eye. With 4cm width slightly wider than the Nikon's, I got lured by the words on the box  "Material from Belgium, Made in Japan" :P. I actually threw away my top choices, OP/Tech USA, and another by Outdoors inc. I will highly do a review on this soon after using this for a while And update my photos at Asakusa Raimon, One of the top places foreigners should check when visiting Japan. Neat cool place with shops and foooood. 

Renewal Tokyo Station 東京駅（新）

Tokyo Station Marunouchi Exit

 After I heard about the renewal of Tokyo Station (2012) I actually wanted to see the building with my own eyes since it was restored to Pre-War conditions. The Station itself started in 1914, ever since the station suffered greatly after bombing of Tokyo and it took years to restore.










   The building itself is well known for using red bricks (Aka Renga) and it symbolized Recovery and Prosperity-recovering from after war, surviving great Kantou Earthquake, and supporting during high economic  development era. Not to mention, privatizing railway.

おいしい！(yum delicious-Oishii)

Look! They even made a bread that looks like the Red Brick (Aka-Renga). Exact same size as the ones used in Tokyo Station. Definitely going to be a famous treat for sightseeing. Sooo popular it is limited to only 4 per customer (250yen each)



 







                                                                                                                                            

Omoide Yokocho-Nishi Shinjuku

 After buying my DSLR (D5100), I realized in order to manage my photo library, I needed to buy a photo editing software to organize. So I went to Nishi Shinjuku (West Exit Shinjuku Station) to buy Lightroom 4 by Adobe. At the same time, I visited Omoide Yokocho, an old Izakaya street located in heart of Shinjuku. Izakaya-is a Japanese pub style/bar serving small dishes like Yakitori, Ramen, and other goodies.
 
   The first 3 photos I took a raw photo and uploaded accordingly (not to mention I used a PL filter on my dslr to give it a nice contrast)
The last photo, instead of uploading the exact photo, i tested using Lightroom 4. Im still new to photo editing software like Adobe photoshop, wasnt sure I used them correctly but I am satisfied with how it looked old fashioned. (last photo with old lady cooking Yakitori umm delicious) 

First photo using Adobe lightroom 4.

Test Photo's Nikon 35mm F1.8G lens

Had some time and I took some photos near my house. Wanted to test how well these lens work in low light situation and quite surprised on how well it took. It was my first time using the tripod on my camera and I still need to practice using it because lots of camera shake appeared before getting these photos. For these photos I actually used slow shutter speed for the first photo (about 5" sec) and 1/15sec for the trees.

ISO 100, 5sec F10

ISO 100 1/15 F2.5